While I have done a post with mini reviews of some of my recent reads, it’s been a while since I’ve done a monthly reading wrap up here on the blog, the last one appearing in August. So I thought, why not try and end the year right, even if it might not have started out on the best note? And because of that, you’ll be seeing a lot more from me here – a couple of opinion pieces, posts with the yearly reading wrap up, book reviews, and a travel article or two as well. Basically what I’m saying is that December is going to be a busy, busy month!
Today’s blog post, however, is my November 2023 reading wrap up. I read 11 books in November and although I wanted to read a bunch of nonfiction books for Nonfiction November, there were only a few that I managed to actually read. I will also be withholding sharing one of the books I read in November because I’m saving them for vlogs that I want to be putting up soon. I mean, I’ve been waiting for a few books to arrive at the library and only 2 of the 3 have become available, so all I can do is continue to wait. But I’m very excited for these vlogs to go up!
If you’d like to stay updated with these vlogs, here’s the link to my YouTube channel: The Melodramatic Bookworm.
I’ve also put up this reading wrap up in video format on my channel. If you’d like to check it out, here’s the link: November 2023 Wrap Up on TMB.
Now, onto my November 2023 reading wrap up!
1, 2, 3. The 2nd, 3rd & 4th in Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan
Although I didn’t read all three in quick succession, I figured grouping them together would make more sense, especially since I cannot give away any details.
The Heroes of Olympus series follows Percy Jackson and the Olympians and here, we’re introduced to 5 new demigods, some of who are Roman, and who, along with Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, have to go on a huge quest to unite the Greeks and the Romans in order to save the world, because Gaia, the Earth Mother, is waking up. The gods are entangled in a war of their own, the giants are emerging from Tartarus, and the seven demigods must fight against time to stop Gaia from waking up and destroying the world.
I always love returning to Rick Riordan’s universe because his writing is full of wit, humor, compassion, and information, and that’s just scratching the surface. These three books were no different – I started this series in October – and I’ve already finished the fifth as well as Percy Jackson and the Chalice of the Gods (the sixth in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series) that follows Heroes of Olympus. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve snorted with laughter at these demigods’ antics while biting my nails as I read about their battles and adventures. Always, always going to be a fan of Uncle Rick’s writing, no matter how old I get!
4. Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
The genocide of Palestinian people perpetrated by Israeli settlers pushed me into reading this one, and it broke my heart and infuriated me in equal measure. Every day, I am horrified at the heartless violence inflicted on Palestinian people under flimsy, false excuses. Minor Detail is a fictional story that shows this truth, but then again, it isn’t that far from the truth.
It is told in two timelines, one in 1949 and the other 25 years later. In the first timeline, we’re confronted with the gangrape and murder of an Arab girl by Israeli soldiers. In the second, a young woman sets out to find out what happened on that day 25 years ago on the day that she was born. And through these, we see glimpses of Palestinian life, oppressed and struggling for a free breath. Each of these boil your blood with a sophistication that feels alien to the anger coursing through your veins. It is raw, sharp, focused, shows the power inequality in Palestine, and how things haven’t changed for Palestinians in the decades since the Nakba.
If you haven’t read this book but would like to, please do so immediately. It will make you understand the situation in a deeper, clearer manner.
5. Fatty Fatty Boom Boom by Rabia Chaudry
(Taken from my Instagram review.)
Rabia Chaudry is a public figure, founder of the Safe Native Collaborative, attorney, and a host of the podcast ‘Serial’ that focused on the wrongful conviction of Adnan Syed for the murder of Hae Min Lee. Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is a peek into Rabia’s life where she talks about food, her relationship with it, the fat-shaming and the body-shaming she was subjected to from everyone around her, family included, and her journey towards finding peace with her body through understanding what it needed the most.
The many mentions of Pakistani food had me salivating for food currently beyond my reach, even if it was something I don’t eat. Such is the power of Rabia’s words and descriptions.
We need food to survive but this world shames us for wanting more food or not wanting more food, for enjoying food and for not enjoying it – there’s no winning! The world as we know it is built on hypocrisy and Rabia narrates examples from her life in this bok.
While I adore Rabia for sharing her life with us, I do think that at least 80% of the book seems like just a list of dishes and not much was said about ‘making peace with the body we have.’ I understand that everybody does this at their own pace, but what I got from the book was more like a pakora that was removed from the oil minutes before it fully cooked. It’s still tempting and probably still tasty (It’s besan, come on!), but it still leaves a bit to be desired.
I’ll still recommend this book because of the points I touched on before.
6. A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa
This is Masaji Ishikawa’s memoir in which he tells us about his life from the time he and his family moved to North Korea in 1960 till the time he escaped in 1996.
Born in 1947 in Kawasaki, Japan to a Korean father and a Japanese mother, Masaji and his family moved to North Korea after promises were made by the North Korean government about ‘paradise on Earth.’ We see a glimpse of the life they live and the stark difference between what was promised and what was (and probably still is) is horrifying to say the least. But through all this struggle, life did go on. Masaji got married, had kids, and by the time 1996 came around, became desperate to give them a better life. Hence the difficult decision to run away. He hoped to send for his family soon after.
This book was published in 2000 in Japanese and was translated into English in 2017. It is raw with anger and resentment against the North Korean dictatorship, and justifiably so, given the kind of atrocious behavior it meted out against the people. The conditions, the administration, the bureaucracy – all of it is so appalling and cruel, sending chills of horror and anger down your spine. I would say I loved the book if I didn’t think the existence of ruthless dictators like the ones who caused these troubles for people like Masaji a shame upon this very Earth.
7. The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
This is a short story that I read for a little reading project I have going on this year, the video for which will go up very soon. If you’d like to watch it when it comes out, do subscribe here to stay updated: The Melodramatic Bookworm.
The Ugly Duckling is a beloved children’s story by Hans Christian Andersen about a duckling born ugly, alienated by birds around him. He goes from place to place, not finding any that feels like home, fighting for survival against external heckling and internal self-loathing. It’s a story of the patience and the self-love required to be able to bloom into something beautiful, although I wasn’t a huge fan of the focus on external beauty rather than character strength. But I do acknowledge the metaphor that Andersen uses to make his point.
8. Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India by K. Vaishali
This is K. Vaishali’s memoir about growing up lesbian and dyslexic in India in which she points out the different ways in which so many Indians discriminate against people who are different from societal standards in the smallest ways and how that discrimination grows into hate when the person in question is a lesbian.
The book is eye-opening as Vaishali narrates her life and how she was treated by her own family. The whole situation in her family wasn’t that great to begin with, given the many expectations on her shoulder. But when she told them she was lesbian and dyslexic, their reaction was beyond any she had imagined.
Beyond that, she takes us through how being kicked out onto the street has affected her, her career, her love life, her friendships, and her desires. It is a clinically written book but you can see the hurt emerging from its pages.
Please read it, spread the word, and try not to be like the people who made Vaishali feel this way.
9. Recipes for Sad Women by Hector Abad
This copy was a gift from a very dear friend but unfortunately, it didn’t work for me fully.
Recipes for Sad Women is a collection of, not the traditional recipes that you see, but of a different kind of recipes which tell you what you can do when you’re sad and the kind of concoctions to use. Some of these are really absurd but some of the others are just the things you might be looking for. Yet others tell women what we should do with such confidence that I rolled my eyes.There’s also a certain hypocrisy in how it treats men and women. There was one place where the author said that if a woman has to resort to plastic surgery, if a woman has to change her face cosmetically, then she is a failure. But in another page, he said that if a man does xyz, be considerate towards him because this is what he feels.
Yet, there are some that are so brilliant that I know I’ll go back and read them over and over again.
Overall, I feel like this is a book that you can randomly open to any page and read and glean the goodness from it while keeping the others at a distance.
10. Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
Douglas Stuart’s second book, Young Mungo, is set in Glasgow, just like his first, Shuggie Bain. But while I was annoyed with Shuggie Bain, I ended up loving Young Mungo.
Mungo Hamilton lives with his older sister and mother while his brother has left the nest. His mother, however, oscillates between being a mother and being a teenager. Having had them at a young age, she wants to live her life more freely than she can. It’s a heteronormative society they live in and when Mungo becomes close to James, a boy living nearby, his mother sends him away on a fishing trip with two men, thinking that they will teach him to be a ‘real man’ by showing him how to fish. 15-year-old Mungo doesn’t have a choice and leaves, wondering why his mother would send him off with strangers, but also not surprised at her behavior because this is very on-brand for her.
Douglas Stuart’s main characters all have mommy issues but this mother here, Mo-maw is especially bad, given how she neglects her children and then comes back to them saying that she faced a lot of problems to bring them up. I have an equal amount of distaste for James’s father, who keeps going out to work leaving him for weeks at a time.
My heart broke with every page turned although I don’t love everything that happens in there. But then, these kinds of things do happen in real life, so I guess it was a not-so-rare instance of fiction mirroring reality. The biggest plus, however, is that Douglas Stewart’s writing has become better since his debut book. Or maybe it’s just the me in this moment. But I actually think that Young Mungo was very evocative and compelling.
If you like stories like this and/or if you don’t mind reading stories like this, then this is one book that you should definitely check out. But keep in mind the trigger warnings that include rape, alcoholism, sexual abuse, and violence.
So that was my November 2023 reading wrap up! Which of these have you read? Which ones do you want to read? What did you read in November 2023? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you!
If you’d like my November 2023 reading wrap up in video format instead, here’s where you can watch it: November 2023 Reading Wrap Up on TMB.
I’ll see you in the next blog post.
Until next time, keep reading, keep watching, and add melodrama to your life! ❤
The Melodramatic Bookworm 